[edster]

In some big companies, the first company to get a person into the system "owns" that person. So it's in the recruiting companies interest to get as many people submitted as quickly as possible.

Another thing with big companies, they sometimes have policies that require them to post jobs and gather candidates from outside, but often they really just want to make the move internally and the recruiting companies and guys like yourself are just collateral damage.

In other words, the course of events doesn't necessarily suggest underhanded play by the recruiter.